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Extracted from: Timberlake P.H., (1969). A Contribution to the Systematics of North America Species of Synhalonia (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). University of California Publications in Entomology Volume 57
This species ranges eastward from Boulder and Denver, Colorado, onto the plains as far as Oklahoma and southward to Texas. It was originally taken at flowers of Ribes and has also been found visiting flowers of Astragalus and Cercis. Female.—Black; small joints of tarsi ferruginous. Tegulae fuscous, more or less amber at apex. Wings strongly dusky, nervures fuscous, subcosta black. Pubescence rather short, erect and dense, pale ochreous, becoming paler on face and beneath. Hair of tergite 1 whitish, moderately long and erect, but with small appressive area on each side apically. Hair at base of tergites 2 to 5 black, with moderately narrow bands of white on tergites 2 to 4; band on tergite 2 broader than black area at base, but receding from apical margin except at outer ends, the apical depression across middle minutely punctate with appressed hair more or less black; bands on tergites 3 and 4 normally covering only slightly more than apical depression. Apical band of tergite 5 brown, white or whitish on outer thirds (in Oklahoma female this band chocolate brown and entirely dark). Hair of legs whitish, scopal hair of hind legs fulvous, and hair on inner side of basitarsi bright ferruginous.
Head much broader than long; inner orbits nearly parallel. Vertex very weakly impressed on each side; lateral ocelli slightly more than their distance apart from nearest eye. Proboscis moderately long; galeae minutely tessellate, dull, and nearly hairless. Second submarginal cell receiving recurrent nervure about one-fourth of its length from apex. Pygidial plate broad at base and moderately narrow at apex. Apical depression of tergite 1 broadly and of tergite 2 narrowly bare and impunctate. Length about 14-15 mm, anterior wing 9.5-10 mm, width of abdomen about 9.5-9.8 mm.
Male.—Black; tarsi ferruginous; tibial spurs testaceous. Tegulae and wings nearly as dark as in female. Labrum, clypeus, and transverse supraclypeal mark pale yellow or creamy white, and sometimes a very small spot at base of mandibles. Clypeal mark moderately well separated from margin of eyes and obtusely notched on each side. Pubescence of head and thorax moder¬ately long and whitish. Pubescence of abdomen beyond tergite 1 mostly short and rather thin, black across apex of tergite 2 and on disk of following segment, mostly white on tergite 2 and with white band more or less distinct at apex of tergites 3 to 6; hair of venter mostly black on sternites 3 to 5 and white on sternites 1 and 2. Hair of legs white, but ferruginous on inner side of basitarsi.
Head much broader than long; inner orbits moderately divergent above. Ocellar region rather prominent, but vertex hardly impressed on each side. Antennae slender, reaching to base of tergite 2, joint 3 half as long as 4, flagellum rather strongly nodose. Clypeus shining, with close, very fine, shallow punctures. Mesoscutum dull, densely, rather obscurely punctured. Legs normal, middle tibiae densely pubescent beneath. Sternite 6 shining, with narrow oblique impression on each side near base, terminating in small rounded protuberance of margin, and bounded within by very weak ridge; disk at base with two large, dense patches of moderately short, erect, black hair, and the submarginal hair on each side of apical margin very short and sparse. Sternites 7 and 8 as figured. Parameral lobes of genital armature straight, equally wide at base and apex, moderately constricted in between, and ovally expanded and thickened at apex. Length 12-12.5 mm, anterior wing 8.5-9 mm.
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